By Marie-Louise Meyers

There are always warnings. Teenage shooters don’t come out of nowhere, there are signs and symptoms, social media threats, an unusual interest in guns as if a final answer to everything beyond target practice and hunting witnessed by parents, teachers, counselors illustrative of frustrations felt for a need to act out and make good on their threats.

How to prevent the actual act?  Whose job is it?  How can you separate teens who toy with the idea which is a result of underlying frustrations, and those who follow through?  How to prevent an impinging tragedy in time! 

Every parent needs to have in hand a list of possible indicators.  Counselors and teachers should be trained in observing behavior which deviates from frustrations and acting out within the normal range of behavior teens routinely exhibit, guide and help them find suitable outlets.  

There has to be an in-school threat assessment team even through the percentage of threats carried out are few.  Are there noticeable changes in behavior?  Are they spending an inordinate time on Social Media instead of seeking friendships in school or outside activities. Are their grades falling perceptively?  Is the teen a loner who stares into space or seems to be furtively drawing captions as though plotting something which gives him a sense of accomplishment, but shows it to no one, or at best a few who may even laugh at the thought process when he exhibits visible anger as if to say, “you’ll see, I’m not all talk” (without a follow through!).

The community requires an evaluation process in which the counselor consults with mental health workers, police, and social workers to form a support group that will investigate any teen who demonstrates anti-social behavior, makes claims or rebels in a way which may seem dangerous or suddenly brags about possessing firearms. We don’t need just a snapshot but a video especially when he may spend inordinate time making gestures as if going over a plan he wants to execute.  

Every teen requires stability through the growing years.  Who can they count on when the family doesn’t furnish what’s essential to calm their growing fears, volatile emotional upheaval in a programmed way?  

When they feel like nothing, what’s left but to prove they’re something? When they rage against authority, will there be someone to guide them in healthy alternatives, a place to express their frustration or anger in a safe way?  I need help is rarely spelled out, but dead-eyes are a give away!

Every sailboat needs an outrigger to furnish stability when the surf is high as it is today, when the world is impinging on them without a means of seeing them through until they feel  in control again.